Abuse survivor demands end to former G-G's pension

Survivors of child sexual abuse have demanded former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth lose his $500,000-per-year pension and benefits package for "misleading" a top-level inquiry.

Abuse survivors from the Diocese of Brisbane say unfavourable findings in February against Dr Hollingworth, the former Anglican archbishop of Brisbane, by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have been brushed over, reports The Australian.

Those findings include that he misled the Brisbane Inquiry, a formal child sexual abuse investigation, into sexual abuse in December 2002 when he was governor-general.

He misled that inquiry about his contact with people, including victims who had brought the abuse to his attention as far back as the 1990s.

Peter Hollingworth gives evidence to a hearing of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in 2015. (Photo: AAP).

And he had knowledge of expert opinion about the likelihood of further abuse by serial-offending priest, John Elliot, but allowed him continue in the parish and retire with benefits.

Elliot later pleaded guilty to counts of sexual assault and abuse of boys and was jailed.

Dr Hollingworth's handling of child sex abuse and his public comments on the matter caused him to resign in May 2003, just 23 months after being appointed governor-general by former prime minister John Howard.

He has since apologised and expressed regret over his behaviour towards the victims.

One survivor has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull urging a review of the public money given to Dr Hollingworth in the wake of this year's findings.

In a statement to The Australian, Dr Hollingworth said: "It is utterly untrue that I deliberately misled the Brisbane Inquiry or the royal commission. I have acknowledged errors of judgment in my handling of cases of sexual abuse and acknowledged struggling with my memory of discussions and documents from many years past, particularly when I had no access to documents to refresh my memory. I have also expressed my regret and made apologies with respect to these matters. But I have never deliberately misled, nor have I sought to cover up or protect paedophiles."

The royal commission did not accept Dr Hollingworth's declaration that he had not "deliberately" misled the Brisbane Inquiry.